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Oakland to again reject A's lease, make competing offer

By Matthew Artz

Oakland Tribune

Posted:
07/02/2014 06:05:30 AM PDT

Updated:
07/02/2014 06:06:00 AM PDT

OAKLAND -- Oakland and Alameda County officials are careening toward another nasty confrontation this week over a proposed lease extension for the Oakland A's that would lower the team's annual rent by about 20 percent.

The City Council late Tuesday ordered its four members on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority to reject the deal at a meeting scheduled for Thursday. Instead the city will release its own proposed lease extension addressing several of the council's concerns, including reduced rent payments for the A's, Councilman Larry Reid said.

The county's four representatives on the eight-member board support the deal already worked out with the A's that could keep the team in Oakland through the 2024 season. The Coliseum Authority released the proposed agreement Tuesday.

The inevitable deadlock will come less than one week after the city's representatives on the Coliseum board didn't show up for a vote on the lease deal, triggering angry rebukes from county leaders.

On Tuesday, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who chairs the Coliseum board, said he had no plans to cancel this week's meeting and avoid another public dust up that could be seized on by critics of keeping the team in Oakland.

"Right now we've got a deal that we want to vote up or down," he said. "I don't see why we should be held hostage to the city."

Reid, who also sits on the Coliseum board, said Miley and Supervisor Scott Haggerty were trying to pressure council members into accepting a deal council thought favored the A's.

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"We will present what the council thinks is a much better lease agreement that is in the interests of the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda," Reid said.

A's owner Lew Wolff, who signed off on the proposed lease extension, did not return a phone call.

The proposed agreement includes a clause that the team will "engage in good faith discussions" on a new ballpark at the sprawling Coliseum complex in East Oakland that is jointly owned by the city and county.

However, should the A's choose to terminate the deal early and move to San Jose, their maximum exit fee would be $7.75 million -- less than the annual salaries of three A's players.

With the A's stymied in their attempt to move to San Jose, Oakland leaders have pushed for better lease terms, fearful that they will lose leverage once a long-term lease extension is signed. Both the council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors must ratify any lease deal at the jointly owned Coliseum complex.

The current proposal would forgive the A's more than $5 million that the team has deducted from past rent payments to offset a city parking tax. The dispute had been scheduled to go before an arbitrator. Instead, the money is expected to go toward a $10 million scoreboard that the A's would purchase. Future parking tax funds would be collected by the team and delivered to the city.

The lease allows the Coliseum Authority to terminate the lease should the Oakland Raiders and developers strike a deal to build a new football stadium on the Coliseum site. The A's would get two-year's notice before having to vacate.

The A's also can break the lease starting in 2018. The team would then have to pay the remaining lease payments.

Under the current two-year lease, which is scheduled to expire after the 2015 season, the A's pay $1.5 million in rent and a $250,000 fee to control concession rights for their games and other events at the Coliseum.

The proposed agreement, which would supersede the current deal, would eliminate the concessions fee. Total payments by the team would remain at $1.75 million this year. But after that, rent would drop to $1.25 million in 2015; $1.5 million for 2016 through 2019; and $1.25 million through 2024.

Miley justified the rent reductions as part of a package that would improve Oakland's chances of keeping the team long-term.

"The important issue for me is that we gain the good will of the A's and Major League Baseball," he said. "Hopefully we can continue to work with them on keeping the A's here permanently."